Architects & design teams
Share drawing packages, specifications and revisions with consultants. Keep project files organized and control who can change or download them.
NEXTCLOUD FOR CONSTRUCTION & ENGINEERING
Your project.
Your partners.
Your control.
Keep drawings, documents and project conversations connected — from the design office to the construction site.
Give architects, engineers, contractors and project owners a shared workspace with access defined by you.
Construction & EngineeringFiles · Office · Talk
Design office ↔ Construction siteInternal teams ↔ External partnersPrivate infrastructure ↔ Managed operations
BUILT AROUND THE WAY PROJECTS WORK
Different responsibilities.
One shared information space.
Reduce scattered attachments and disconnected file transfers. Organize project information around the people who need it.
Engineers & consultants
Exchange calculations, technical reports and model files across disciplines. Use version history and comments to keep document discussions connected.
Contractors & site teams
Access agreed project documents on web, desktop and mobile. Collect site photographs and reports in the right project folders. Plan synchronization for intermittent connectivity.
Investors & project owners
Give stakeholders visibility into agreed document sets. Organize progress reports, contracts and handover materials with permissions that match each participant’s responsibility.
FROM FILE EXCHANGE TO PROJECT COLLABORATION
Make everyday coordination easier.
Controlled drawing exchange
Use project folders and sharing permissions for CAD/BIM files and PDFs. Test representative file sizes, desktop workflows and synchronization before rollout.
Documents without email chains
Co-edit supported office documents using the selected office integration. Keep meeting minutes, schedules and specifications alongside the project files.
External collaboration
Define named access or controlled sharing links with appropriate permissions, passwords and expiry policies. Review access as partners join and leave.
Project conversations
Use Talk for team discussions and meetings, with deployment capacity planned for your expected usage.
Traceability & governance
Configure version history, activity and audit logging to support accountability. Define retention and review responsibilities for each project.
Structured handover
Agree folder structures, deliverables and access at project completion. Export and archive according to your organization’s retention policy.
SEE THE PLATFORM BEHIND THE WORKFLOW
Real Nextcloud tools.
Connected to your project work.
Official product examples from Nextcloud. Screens show demonstration content, not a NATIVITY customer deployment.
Nextcloud Files
Nextcloud Office
Work together on supported meeting minutes, reports and schedules.
Official product page ↗
Nextcloud TalkSecurity & Data Protection
Keep project files
under control.
Give each project partner the right access to drawings, tender documents and site records, from first issue to handover.
Nextcloud Hub-
Control access
Give architects, site teams and subcontractors access to the folders they need. Set expiry dates for temporary sharing.
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Protect files
Keep drawings, bids and site reports in project folders with agreed permissions for viewing, editing and sharing.
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Track activity
Use version history to trace revisions. Configure activity logging and decide who reviews it.
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Recover records
Agree backup ownership and test restoration of project files before handover.
On a construction project
One issued drawing set, with access by role.
Give the site team read access to issued drawings and let design leads update working files. Set a separate sharing window for the subcontractor. At handover, revoke temporary access and assign ownership of the records.
Applicable requirements
Define who can see and keep project records.
- Personal data. Set rules for who can see site photos and worker details, where they are hosted and how long they are kept. Assess Serbian ZZPL and EU GDPR separately. ZZPL ↗GDPR ↗
- Records and cybersecurity. Agree who owns retention at handover. Check whether archival rules and sector-specific cybersecurity duties apply. State Archives ↗RATEL ↗NIS2 ↗
YOUR PLATFORM. YOUR OPERATING MODEL.
Enterprise foundations.
Managed to your needs.
Choose who operates the platform. We define the deployment, responsibilities and support scope with you before implementation.
Nextcloud Enterprise
For organizations that want to run Nextcloud on their own or agreed private infrastructure.
- Architecture and Enterprise subscription planning
- Identity, storage and security integration
- Migration, configuration and administrator handover
- Support aligned with the selected subscription
Managed Nextcloud
For teams that want a defined operational service alongside their collaboration platform.
- Hosting location and access boundaries agreed with you
- Monitoring, maintenance and update responsibilities
- Backup and recovery scope with restoration checks
- User support, capacity reviews and service reporting
Proposed service scope. Hosting, subscription, response times, recovery objectives and pricing are confirmed in the written offer. Managed service is an operating model; it can include Nextcloud Enterprise.
A PRACTICAL START
Prove the workflow before scaling it.
Discover
Map one project, its participants, data locations and existing tools. Identify the main source of collaboration friction.
Pilot
Test representative drawings, sharing permissions, mobile access and document collaboration with a bounded team.
Roll out
Migrate agreed information, train teams and verify recovery. Expand with clear ownership and support responsibilities.
QUESTIONS BEFORE YOU START
Clear expectations from day one.
Can we keep our existing CAD and BIM tools?
Yes. Designers keep working in their specialist applications. Nextcloud can be used to distribute agreed deliverables, such as issued PDFs, drawing sets or IFC exports, and to give project partners access to the current release.
During the pilot we use your actual files and applications to test linked references, large uploads, file locking and synchronization. That helps decide which working files can be synchronized and which should stay in the authoring environment.
Where will our data be hosted?
Choose between infrastructure you operate and a hosting environment agreed during solution design. Before deployment, we document where primary files and backups reside, who can administer each system and how data is exported or restored.
If your procurement or contracts specify a country, a provider or limits on remote support access, bring those requirements to the design review. We confirm them against the proposed deployment and service terms.
Can external partners participate?
Yes. For example, a subcontractor can receive access to the issued drawings for its work package, while the design team keeps editing rights to working files. Decide which partners need named accounts and which can use a controlled link.
Before rollout we test how a partner signs in, what they can view, edit or download, when access expires and how it is revoked after their assignment ends.
Is this automatically a compliant construction CDE?
Nextcloud can support document exchange within a Common Data Environment (CDE) process. For a project that specifies a standard or contractual workflow, map who can issue a drawing, how revisions are approved, and how superseded files and handover records are kept.
Test those steps with a sample drawing package and agree what evidence the client will accept. Record any specialist CDE tools or additional workflow controls that the project requires.
3 published references
CASE STUDIES & CUSTOMER STORIES
Case studies
Explore real deployments and the workflows behind them. Each example links to its original publisher.
Germany · Infrastructure engineering
DEGES
DEGES coordinates complex transport infrastructure projects across planning teams, architects, construction supervisors and contractors. The published story describes controlled document exchange across departments and external organizations.
Official case study · Published by Nextcloud. The €22 billion portfolio in the 2019 story is historical context.Read the Nextcloud story ↗Germany · Construction
ACHATZ GmbH
The construction company uses Nextcloud for access to building-project files and password-protected links for large customer deliveries. innofabrik describes hosting the service in Germany.
Provider project story · Published by innofabrikRead provider story (German) ↗USA · Engineering education
Michigan Tech Aerospace Enterprise
A student aerospace team brought engineering files, communication and planning into a self-hosted workspace. This is an engineering-education deployment, rather than a construction contractor or factory reference.
Related engineering example · Published by NextcloudRead the Nextcloud story ↗These are external Nextcloud customer references or stories published by the named implementation providers. They are not presented as NATIVITY implementations. Related engineering examples are labelled separately; individual outcomes depend on the deployment.
